Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”

The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.

Source: Pink Tentacle Link  filed under Weird Science News

Hundreds of new marine creatures, including as many as 150 soft corals, have been discovered in three Australian reefs, scientists report.

Previously unknown shrimps, worms, scavenging crustaceans, and spectacularly colored soft corals were identified at the tropical sites during a study led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

Part of the Census of Marine Life, a ten-year initiative to assess global ocean diversity, the expeditions involved systematic sampling of lesser known coral reef animals at Lizard and Heron islands on the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef on Australia’s west coast.

A comb jelly trips the light fantastic as it pulses. The creature lacks the stingers of more common jellyfish.

The small, delicate seaweed species, Caulerpa cupressoides was discovered for the first time.
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A green-banded snapping shrimp reveals its disproportionate weaponry.

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A gelatinous “creature” pictured floating in the water is actually a colony of smaller animals called salpae.
These sac-like filter feeders can either float as individuals or can form long chains as they drift through the ocean feeding on plankton.

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A pair of fan worms wave their feathery feeding arms to filter tiny particles from the water.

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A new species of sea slug, or nudibranch, makes an exotic addition to the coral reefs.

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A new variety of translucent soft corals–so-called because they lack the hard skeletons of reef-building corals.

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All Photographs by Gary Cranitch/Queensland Museum
Source: National Geographic  Link Filed under Weird Science News

“You have such full lips, just like my mom.” That pickup line probably won’t get a guy many dates–but it’s likely to be true. A new study of facial features adds to mounting evidence that a man tends to choose a girlfriend who resembles his mother, and a woman picks a boyfriend who looks like her father.

Researchers are on to something, says Randy Thornhill, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque: “It’s more than just a little fluke.”

The findings have their roots in studies of geese carried out in the 1930s. Ethologist Konrad Lorenz found that when he raised the birds, they followed him around like a mother. He could even convince goslings that a ball was mom if the ball “led” the flock of tiny birds within days of hatching. Since then, the behavior, known as imprinting, has also been linked to mate choice. Male lambs raised by goats, for example, grow up as rams that battle for the affection of goats, not sheep.

Imprinting seems to exist in humans too. Studies show that men and women born to older parents find older faces more attractive, and women will favor photographs of men whose faces resemble their fathers. People have also judged photos of men and their fathers-in-law as looking similar, further suggesting that women marry men who look like their dads.

Hoping to quantify this effect in both men and women, Tamás Bereczkei, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Pécs in Hungary, measured 14 facial proportions, such as lip fullness, nose length, and jaw width, of 312 people from 52 families in Hungary. The team found that men and their partners’ fathers looked more similar to each other than to random men in the study: The men shared significant correlations for seven areas of the face, mainly in features around the eyes and nose. Women and their partners’ mothers also resembled each other, with significant correlations for five of the facial features, mostly around the jaw.

Bereczkei says the results, published online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicate that people are probably not simply relying on familiarity as a cue when picking dates, because children seem to use only their opposite-sex parents as a model for the perfect spouse.

Using mom or dad as a mating guide may be evolutionary insurance against mating with the wrong species, a possible throwback to a time when multiple hominids lived together, says Lisa DeBruine, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Aberdeen in the U.K. Or, she says, it could be a way to balance the benefits of finding a similar mate, who is likely to share some beneficial genes and adaptations with you, against the pitfalls of incest.

Boguslaw Pawlowski, an anthropologist at the University of Wrocław in Poland, says that it’s still unclear what role imprinting plays relative to other factors that influence mate choice. For example, people often find symmetrical faces and bodies attractive because they are thought to signal good health he notes. So what’s a girl to do when she has an asymmetrical dad: Will the influence of imprinting overrule her desire for a sexy, symmetrical man? That’s a good topic for future research, says Bereczkei.

Source: ScienceNow Link posted by Drew Filed under Weird Science News

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Every year, China launches thousands of rockets and artillery shells into the sky. They’re not part of a set of war games or preparation for a battle with Taiwan, but rather a battle with the weather.

Through its Weather Modification Program, the Chinese government hopes to control the fickle forces behind rain. Run by the Weather Modification Department, a division of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Science, the program employs and trains 32,000 to 35,000 people across China, some of them farmers, who are paid $100 a month to handle anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers.

The heavy weapons are used to launch pellets containing silver iodide into clouds. Silver iodide is thought to concentrate moisture and cause rain. The process is known as cloud seeeding and China has invested heavily in it, using more than 12,000 anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers in addition to about 30 planes.

Chinese research into weather control began in 1958, when the practice was still in its early stages. With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China requires vast amounts of water. Cities like Beijing suffer from terrible smog, and rain can help clear away air pollution. The government is using cloud seeding to try to produce rain for farmers, stave off drought and fill water basins.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Government launched thousands of rockets containing silver iodide pellets to curb rainfall and smog for the opening and closing ceremonies.

So how does it work? Even in areas with very low humidity, water is present in the sky and in clouds. A rainstorm happens after moisture collects around particles in the air, causing it to reach a level of saturation at which point it can no longer hold in that moisture. Cloud seeding essentially helps that process along, providing “nuclei” around which water condenses. These nuclei can be salts, calcium chloride, dry ice or silver iodide, which the Chinese use. Silver iodide is used because its form is similar to ice crystals. Calcium chloride is often used in warm or tropical areas.

Cloud seeding is heavily used in northern China, an area that does not receive much rain — its rainfall levels are 35 percent below the world average, and some of its water supplies are significantly polluted. Zhiang Qiang, who runs the Beijing Weather Modification Office, told the Asia Times that water levels in Beijing’s water basins have increased up to 13 percent due to cloud seeding. Cloud seeding has also been used to cool down Beijing on hot days.

The Beijing Weather Modification Office spent a lot of time researching how to prevent rain in the city on Aug. 8, 2008, during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The government even guaranteed clear skies for the event. Their plan: to do it by tracking cloud formations and causing rain in the days leading up to the ceremonies.

­Scientists aren’t sure if cloud seeding actually works, but despite the skepticism, China is moving forward, spending $60 to $90 million a year on weather modification, in addition to the $266 million spent from 1995 to 2003. The government plans to produce 50 billion cubic meters of rain a year through the practice.

Source: Asia Times Online. Link Posted by Drew. Filed under Weird Science News.